Pros:
Kiwanis is an amalgamation of a disc golf course if I've ever seen one. It's basically got aspects of three different courses, which, combined together get you 18 holes. Seems like there's plenty of room to improve.
- The course does have variety. Hole #1 is a tight upshot; #2 is wooded; #3 - 8 are wide open; #9 - 15 are heavily wooded; and #16 - 18 are back in the open. Whether that's a good thing or not, almost everyone is bound to enjoy part of the layout and dislike other parts.
- Course puts heavy emphasis on the mid-range game. 12 of the 18 holes are 212 feet or shorter. Even with one hole at 468 feet, the average length is 220 feet. If you can throw an accurate mid-range shot, you'll be seeing lots of birdie chances.
- Course is almost completely isolated from the rest of the park. The park was packed on the Saturday afternoon I played, due to the crowds at the water-park. Other than cars parking in the grass close to the basket for #7, the disc golf portion was empty except for myself and my playing partner.
- This is a good practice course. The open holes would be good for practicing drives or mid-range shots. You could also spruce things up with some safari golf.
- Course is mostly a beginner friendly course. I throw out the disclaimer simply because brand new players might get frustrated with some of the tight, wooded layouts on holes #9 - 15. There's a bit too much of a luck factor with bounces off trees that could turn off newbies.
- I'll highlight three of the more enjoyable holes on this course. On many a courses, they would be filler holes. Here they're highlights. #2 is a semi-wooded, downhill, 200 foot shot. Fun ace run hole. #9 is a tight, wooded, 163-foot uphill shot. It's a good hole to be aggressive on, aiming for the chains. #16 is probably the course's best hole, a semi-open, 260-foot holes with big trees on both sides of the fairway, eliminating most big sweeping shots from getting close to the basket.
Cons:
I'll echo my issues from above. The course feels like it was randomly put together until there were a total of 18 holes at the park. Holes #1 - 8 all have one common flavor, #9 - 15 have another, and then #16 is on its own island due to the long walk to and fro. You go from a bunch of wide open holes that are too close to each other to a series of heavily wooded holes? It's just a weird flow.
- Holes #16 - 18 are such a frustration because of the long walk. It was really annoying because the walk is only for three holes. It's one of the better three hole stretches (by default), but it feels like you spend as much time walking as it takes to knock out the holes themselves.
- Holes #4 - 7 are bad because you go back-and-forth, back-and-forth across the same wide-open field. If there are other players on this stretch watch out, because even a slightly off-line shot will end up on one of the other fairways. To top it off, #8 starts back across the same field; however, at least this hole doglegs right around the edge of the trees, so there's a variable to this hole.
- Holes #10 - 15 are all very similar, especially the stretch of #12 - 15. Those four holes felt pretty much identical, so a little more variety and/or creativity would have been greatly appreciated.
- Not a lot of challenge to this course. Plus, there aren't any truly great holes here, just several good ones. Add it up and mid-level and above players will tear up this course.
Other Thoughts:
Kiwanis is a decent short course. If nothing else, it's a change of pace to Harmon Hills and Warriors Path.
- The course just never seemed like it got out of second gear. The first three holes were decent, giving me somewhat reasonable hopes of this being a fun, short course (along the lines of Elon Eager Beaver in Charlotte). After hole #7, I was still waiting for another decent hole...and then it was another long stretch before I found another enjoyable/creative layout.
- This space of land would really be better suited for one solid 9-hole course. Knock out a couple of the open holes, and use the wooded area to create several better layouts and you could have a pretty good layout. Instead you get an 18-hole course that has too many simple, short layouts.
- There's not much to offer here. It was disappointing because I thought this would be a fun, cool-down course after my visit to Harmon Hills. What I got instead was the area's least interesting 18-hole layout. It says something that I thought Borden Park was a better all-around course than this one.